After a sixth woman accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, many media outlets chose to avoid mentioning the new developments in their on-air news coverage Tuesday night, Fox News notes.
The Albany Times Union broke the news of the sixth accusation Tuesday afternoon. The woman, an unnamed member of Cuomo’s staff, alleged that the Democrat governor touched her inappropriately last year at the Executive Mansion. The woman did not file a formal complaint with the governor’s office, but other Executive Chamber employees reported her allegations to the governor’s counsel.
Cuomo claimed to be unaware of the new accusation during his daily news briefing Tuesday, which took place an hour after the report was published.
“As I said last week, this is very simple, I never touched anyone inappropriately,” he said. “I never made any inappropriate advances … no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable. Obviously, there are people who said after the fact they felt uncomfortable.”
Fox News covered the new allegation later Tuesday, but anchors on CNN, including Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer, and MSNBC, such as Rachel Maddow, failed to mention the development as controversies over sexual harassment and nursing home deaths continue to expand. Maddow, Grabien transcripts show, has not mentioned Cuomo over the past 10 weeks despite the growing scandals, Fox News notes.
ABC, CBS, and NBC also failed to mention the new sexual misconduct accusation hours after the claims were brought to light.
CNN, in particular, has faced scrutiny over its past coverage of Cuomo by his younger brother, Chris Cuomo, a CNN anchor who hosts “Cuomo Prime Time.” As the governor withheld the true number of COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes in New York, critics say his brother treated him with kid gloves and avoided the controversy, instead choosing to focus on trivial topics and joke around.
The five other women who have made accusations against Cuomo are Lindsey Boylan, Charlotte Bennett, Anna Ruch, Karen Hinton, and Ana Liss.
Boylan, 36, a former aide to the governor, accused him of “sexual harassment and bullying” during the time she worked for him, and Bennett, 25, another former aide, said Cuomo asked her questions about her sex life and whether she had sex with older men.
Ruch, 33, accused Cuomo of putting his hands on her lower back and asking to kiss her at a wedding in 2019, and Hinton, who was formerly a press aide for the governor, said he asked her to his hotel room after a work event in 2000. And Liss, a former police and operations aide, alleged that Cuomo once asked if she had a boyfriend and touched her lower back at a reception.
The New York governor on Monday said he would not step down over recent allegations of sexual harassment, despite prominent Democrats, including state Senate Majority Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins, calling for him to do so.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is currently leading investigations into the sexual harassment and nursing home death toll scandals, and Cuomo is calling for others to wait for the investigation to be completed before passing judgment. (NEWSMAX)
